The Latest: Singer Cassie set to testify in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex trafficking trial
NEW YORK (AP) — The R&B singer Cassie could testify as soon as Tuesday in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial, as the Bad Boy Records founder faces charges that he orchestrated a deviant empire of exploitation that forced women into drugged-up sex parties called “freak-offs.”
Testimony in the trial began Monday. Prosecutors told jurors that, for years, Combs used his status as a powerful executive to coerce women into abusive sexual encounters and became violent if they refused.
Here’s the latest:
The jury isn’t expected in Manhattan federal court this morning until 9:30 a.m. ET
But the lawyers are supposed to meet a half hour earlier to resolve any last-minute legal issues in advance of testimony from the government’s star witness: R&B singer Cassie.
She’s likely to begin testifying by midday. Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, was intertwined with the hip-hop power broker for 11 years. Her lawsuit and allegations of sexual abuse in 2023 ignited the scrutiny that led to federal charges.
Defense conceded Combs had violent outbursts, but say no federal crimes occurred
The public knew Combs as a larger-than-life music and business mogul, but in private, he used violence and threats to coerce women into drug-fueled sexual encounters that he recorded, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at Combs’ sex trafficking trial.
”During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told the jury.
Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.
Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos, though, described the closely watched trial as a misguided overreach by prosecutors, saying that although her client could be violent, the government was trying to turn sex between consenting adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case.
Geragos conceded that Combs’ violent outbursts, often fueled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not sex trafficking and racketeering counts.
Read more about the first day of the trial
Things to know about the trial so far
Witnesses began testifying this week in the trial for one of the biggest music moguls and cultural figures of the past four decades.
The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks in all. Here’s a look at some of the details:
R&B singer Cassie set to testify in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex trafficking trial
The R&B singer Cassie could testify as soon as Tuesday in Combs sex trafficking trial, as the Bad Boy Records founder faces charges that he orchestrated a deviant empire of exploitation that forced women into drugged-up sex parties called “freak-offs.”
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has been at the center of Combs’ stunning downfall. She sued him in 2023, alleging years of abuse. A surveillance video made public last year showed Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. CNN aired the video last year, leading Combs to apologize.
The video, which was played for jurors, shows Combs wearing only a white towel, punching, kicking and dragging Cassie in a hotel hallway.
Israel Florez, a former security officer at the hotel, testified Monday that he came across Combs while responding to a call about a woman in distress, and found Combs sitting in a chair with “a devilish stare.” Florez said Combs offered him a stack of money and said “Don’t tell nobody.”
Read more about the trial so far and Cassie’s expected testimony